A referee gets criticised by a player but why are the American media putting this on the gender of the official?
Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul, the player in question has the full support of the Players Association, for whom he is president of and naturally the referees union is in support of Lauren Holtkamp, as they should. So why won’t this issue be dropped now?
BOTH UNIONS SIDE WITH RESPECTIVE PARTIES
National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts has defended Chris Paul after his comments about referee Lauren Holtkamp’s officiating during the Clippers loss to the Cavs on Thursday.
Unfortunately, people are being led to believe that Paul’s criticism of Holtkamp’s handling of the game was down to her gender. The NBPA are firmly behind Paul and similarly, the referees union is behind Holtkamp.
Via ESPN:
“Without hesitation, the Players Association stands firmly behind Chris, whose competitiveness may only be exceeded by the strength of his values and his conviction,” Roberts said in a statement.
On Friday, Paul repeatedly said it was “a bad call” that prompted him to criticize Holtkamp’s officiating Thursday night — nothing more.
“Last night was about a bad call. That’s all,” Paul said prior to the Clippers’ 123-107 loss to the Toronto Raptors. Paul repeated his answer twice more upon being questioned about it before a team official asked reporters to move on to basketball-related questions.
The eight-time All-Star found himself embroiled in controversy after getting upset that he was given a technical foul by Holtkamp in the third quarter of his team’s 105-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavalierson Thursday. With 10:17 left, he tried to catch an inbounds pass quickly but instead was T’d up after questioning Holtkamp, who became the third woman to referee NBA games full time this season.
SILVER OPEN TO CHANGING PLAYOFF STRUCTURE
NBA Commissioner said in London that he was open to changing how the NBA runs, and he has continued with that pattern by saying he is open to changing the post-season structure.
Via ESPN:
Silver, who appeared on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area during Wednesday night’s Mavericks-Warriors game, elaborated on an issue that he also had brought up during an interview in December with ESPN’s Andy Katz for “Outside the Lines.”
“Ultimately, we want to see your best teams in the playoffs,” Silver said during Wednesday’s game. “And there is an imbalance and a certain unfairness.”
The Western Conference has had a decided edge over the Eastern Conference for quite some time, especially this season, with it having 10 of the league’s best 16 records.
Silver said he’d be willing to talk to the league’s competition committee about a plan in which the six division winners would receive automatic berths and the remaining 10 playoff positions would be determined by overall record, regardless of conference affiliation.
“I think that’s the kind of proposal we need to look at. There are travel issues, of course, but in this day and age every team, of course, has their own plane, travels charter,” Silver said. “… It’s something I’m going to look at closely with the competition committee. A lot of owners have strong feelings on it, but I think it is an area where we need to make a change.”
Silver said he’d need input from the league’s owners before proceeding with any such changes.
Under the proposal, teams such as Charlotte (22-27) and Miami (21-28), which currently rank in the playoff-eligible top eight in the Eastern Conference, would be supplanted by New Orleans (26-23) and Oklahoma City (25-24) in the West in a changed qualifying structure.
“I don’t think the discussion should end there,” Silver said of potential changes. “And as I’ve said, my first year I was studying a lot of these issues, and Year 2 is time to take action.”
